1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the distribution of information over a computer network, and in particular, to a system and method for processing and responding to large volumes of customers request relating to unsolicited commercial email (UCE) and other service disruptions over a computer network, such as the Internet.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Internet is fast proving to be one of the most significant technological developments of the current era. Originally developed in the United States as a cooperative effort of the United States Government known as the Advanced Research Project Agency Network (ARPANET) to tie universities and research and development organization to their military customers, the Internet has now exploded to link computer users world-wide. The Internet is an interconnected system of computer networks of varying types with terminals, usually computer stations, communicating with each other through a common communication protocol, e.g. Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Through this interconnected system of computer networks, the Internet serves as the underlying infrastructure that facilitates a global system of communication known as the world wide web.
Piggy-backed input on the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), the Internet is available to anyone with a telephone line and a computer with modem. Both businesses and private users are taking advantage of the Internet in rapidly increasing numbers for communications of a diverse nature.
One reason for the rapid integration of the Internet into daily activities is that the Internet provides improved efficiencies in communication. For example, messaging over the Internet is very quick, even to remote locations throughout the world. Responses are also typically very quick.
Internet communication has been minimally regulated and continues to involve lowering costs, typically requiring only the cost of a computer terminal and a periodic Internet Service Provider (ISP) fee. Additionally, Internet communications are pervasive, providing easy access from every user on the Internet to millions of other users, almost regardless of physical location.
Because of these efficiencies, one form of communication that has quickly migrated to the Internet is advertising. Advertisers are able to generate and send bulk mailings at a fraction of the cost of mail, telephone, radio, and other commonly accepted types of advertising. Programs exist that quickly merge commercial advertisement messages with reference lists of Internet user addresses and automatically send out many thousands of advertisements in a single day at almost no cost to the sender. Instead, a substantial portion of the costs is born by the intermediary transmission entities and the end users.
Unfortunately, the indiscriminate nature of broadcast advertising over the Internet has led to many problems. To deliver a message in volume and thereby take advantage of the efficiencies of the Internet, senders frequently use commercially generated reference lists of Internet user addresses. These reference lists are very labor intensive and costly to compile in any manner other than randomly. Thus, many Internet broadcasters use random lists of user addresses to send their advertising, transmitting unwanted messages to a large number of disinterested Internet users for every interested Internet user.
Internet users typically resent this random “junk mail” cluttering up their cyberspace mailboxes. Consequently, random advertising over the Internet in the form of electronic mail is commonly referred to, rather unaffectionately, as “spamming.” Angry recipients of this type of Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) advertising have gone so far as to react in simultaneous, damaging, electronic backlashes aimed at particularly notorious junk mail-generating entities.
Large volumes of electronic customer requests (5,000-10,000/day) sent to the Internet Service Provider (ISP) regarding UCE advertisements and other service disruptions are handled by a help desk or customer support center (CSC). Analysts open up each request or complaint, search for the offender's IP address and sent timestamp, then identify the account, categorize the type of incident, analyze the case, and submit a ticket. Portions of the process are done manually. Email requests usually deal with problems related to UCE, but may also include security intrusion reports.
The ISP may be required by law to respond to every complaint that pertains to its network or hosting service. The ISP must maintain a tracking system to insure that each validated complaint is properly handled. The processing is complicated by several conditions, including: 1) analysis of the complaint may involve conditions that change over time and may no longer exist at the time of analysis; 2) many complaints may deal with the same problem, but may be difficult to associate with the other complaints due to different complaint formats; and 3) the customer network itself may change during the time period since the complaint took place. Currently, the ISP has an ad hoc system that may not insure that all complaints are handled correctly, and the introduction of automation into the current environment is difficult.
Accordingly, the inventors of the present invention have recognized a need for a system and method that could be used by an ISP to insure that all spamming complaints are handled successfully, that processing of complaints is done correctly, that legal aspects of certain criminal or fraud related incidents are handled correctly, and that portions of the processing of complaints are handled automatically to the extent feasible.